Revision as of 23:15, 8 February 2020

Some concepts and characters are unobtainable at Multiverse Crisis MUSH. This is an overview, not a comprehensive list, of what. The second half of this news file is dedicated to concepts and characters who are Restricted; difficult to acquire but not strictly banned.

Banned Concepts

1. Completely straight portrayals of real people and religious figures. Exceptions apply with sufficient fictionalization.
2. Self-Inserts.
3. Comedy/Gag/Adult series: Duke Nukem, Futurama, Space Balls, Family Guy, Simpsons, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.
4. A-list Disney: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Simba, etc. Mercedes Lacky, Pern, Steve Jackson games, George R. R. Martin works, and other highly litigious copyrights.
5. If YOU as a player can't wrap your head around a character being defeatable, you don't get to play that character.
6. Character+1 and by extension, Theme+1: Takes on characters or themes which renders alternative takes effectively obsolete.
7. Source materials that present and validate an ideology, set of characters, or way of life as objectively correct and/or optimal way to be in a demonstrable fashion. Approving these themes endorses a state of all other characters and themes being objectively wrong for differing. Typically exemplified by children's shows and moral lesson properties.

Restricted

A restricted theme is a theme that is not overtly banned, but is understood to have a higher bar of execution than other themes to be judged suitable to be integrated into MCM. This is always judged on a theme to theme and player to player basis, both in terms of the theme's writing and portrayal, and the player's history with how they've handled the dicey aspects of that theme in past. A character from a restricted theme will always be required to answer section 4c. Why? on a character application if they are Hard or Soft Restricted, and may be rejected at staff's discretion if the answer is unsatisfactory. Noticed Restrictions may be asked by staff to answer the same question on a case to case basis. Hard Restricted themes have a higher bar of required information for why the character concept is a desirable one, what the player intends to do with it, how they intend to present the theme and character, how they expect people to interact with them, what other players would get out of it, and why the character absolutely must be from the theme they are, than a Soft Restricted theme. Transparently disingenuous answers that are clearly a flat checklist of safe things staff should want to hear may be scrutinized and bounced back. If in doubt, it’s better to answer and not need to.

We cannot give an exhaustive list of what specific themes or things are restricted on MCM simply because MCM allows for far too many themes for a list to be comprehensive and not utterly massive even. A lack of definitive list also provides staff some leeway in exercising best judgement, rather than interpretative rules that immediately become bait for conjecture on how a character is (or as is the more likely case, is not) beholden to or noticed under the rule. Therefore, we align and distinguish only: that which we know beyond the shadow of a doubt has these problems endemic to the theme and thus by-default incur a critical eye (Hard Restricted), those themes which we know in general are portrayed or played as having restricted elements but do not by their very nature engender such problems (Soft Restricted), and finally themes with those elements that could fall under the umbrella but we cannot possibly capture through direct example and thus notice the elements we wish to have downplayed (Noticed Restrictions). Accepted themes/characters that swerve into these territories in an unacceptable or badly misplayed manner may be subject to audit.

Hard Restricted

These themes automatically incur a critical eye due to their history, base setting, or attempted reach, and may not be applied for unless staff is sure without a shadow of a doubt that they will be handled gracefully and in a way that is fun for players to engage with. These character concepts are heavily scrutinized for all aspects of potentially problematic portrayal or behavior, and hinge heavily on player precedent and capability.

1. Cosmic Scale: Themes, which require massive scale of influence or power to meaningfully engage with the setting. Exalted, The Culture, Nobilis, etc.
2. (Cosmic) Horror: Cthulhu or Lovecraftian themes, White Wolf properties, and similar source materials that rely on player helplessness and entities that can't be meaningfully challenged or defeated.
3. Static Themes: Themes that resist player attempts to make changes in them by a core conceit of their design. Exalted; Eclipse Phase, played straight, makes it nearly impossible for a PC to so much as kill a random NPC.
4. Mash-Ups: Original Mash-Up themelists, in the spirit of Kingdom Hearts, Project X Zone, or Super Robot Wars / Taisen.
5. Tone Mismatch: Any setting which is not sufficiently compliant with MCM's tone*, such as My Little Pony, Carebears, Undertale, etc. Unless considerably edited for tone, these can be considered banned.
6. Forever Characters: Characters who are hoarded, in part or in whole, from other media or MUSHes. These characters are, in effect, treated as restricted self-inserts.
7. OC Relatives of FCs: These are banned except when it's glaringly plausible in the relevant source (ex. Percy Jackson).
8. Mental Health: Realistically portrayed psychological or behavioral problems, such as mental illness or substance abuse.
9. Unbending Jerks: Characters whose primary method of interaction is overtly derogatory or hostile. Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2, Gregory House from House, Dr. Cox from Scrubs, etc.

Soft Restricted

These themes are known to draw a critical eye due to their history, base setting, or attempted reach, but are less difficult to work with than Hard Restricted themes, and are not always a problem due to a variety of factors. These are character concepts that pass the bar if they can be written in such a way that their problematic aspects are not the focus of the character, or are downplayed enough to be inoffensive and/or ignorable.

1. Fate/ and all derivative properties of the "Nasuverse".
2. Extremely impenetrable tabletops (in Nomine, for example).
3. Disney that isn't filed under A-list.
4. Themelists that are centered on Time Travel.
5. MMORPGs: MMO Characters will be expected to adhere to reasonable standards for their universe. You can't apply for a Night Elf Hunter who is the Hero of Every Quest. Treat them more like characters from tabletop RPGs. In summary, you can apply for characters from an MMO, but you cannot apply for your MMO character exactly most of the time.
6. Child Characters.

Noticed Restrictions

These elements generally, when found, draw a critical eye but cannot be expressed by a theme-to-theme or setting-to-setting degree. They can pass muster when proper steps are taken to bridge over these specific issues.

1. Dense, Jargon-Heavy, or intentionally Obfuscatory settings.
2. Settings which require certain specific entities or very narrow specialist powers to interact with issues "Hard Stop". This includes settings that are primarily progressed via “middleman” theme exclusive concepts which players may universally interact with, but typically have no choice in the matter, such as Homestuck's many game concepts.
3. Settings where a "Masquerade", or requirement of apparent total normalcy, are important to maintaining theme integrity that doesn't somehow self-enforce. This is specifically not related to settings where people "just sort of forget" weird stuff happening.
4. Source materials that self-enforce a 'back-to-normal' effect that make even large-scale battles or disasters perfectly collateral free.

Restricted Characters

In addition to restricted themes, there are some character concepts that we restrict in much the same way simply for the content of the character concept itself, rather than its theme of origin. These can be either due to conceptual conceits that are actively anti-fun, which are generally ripe for being tastelessly portrayed and possibly even offensive, in dodgy intellectual property territory, and/or some mix of the previous or others aspects.

Soft Restricted

These are character concepts that pass the bar if they can be written in such a way that their problematic aspects are not the focus of the character, or are downplayed enough to be inoffensive and/or ignorable.

1. MMO Characters will be expected to adhere to reasonable standards for their universe. You can't apply for a Night Elf Hunter who is the Hero of Every Quest. Treat them more like characters from tabletop RPGs. In summary, you can apply for characters from an MMO, but you cannot apply for your MMO character exactly most of the time.
2. Child characters in general.

Restricted Application Section

This is the section you append to your application if you are applying for a Restricted concept. For more information on Restricted concepts, see the Banned page's sub-headers for Restricted.

E. RESTRICTED

This is an extra application section for Restricted concepts. If you are applying for a RESTRICTED or BANNED concept, you must answer 1e and 2e.

1e. Intention

What do you intend to do with this character or theme? Be broad - we're looking for you to have a good handle on why the concept is Restricted (or complicated) in the first place, and what you're doing to avoid that.

2e. Tone

What tone do you intend to use with the character or theme? Why is this tone "Good for MCM', and how does it broadly fit in with the themes and other characters of the Multiverse? If you have (or must) adjust the tone to work with MCM, what have you done to address these concerns?